Help me solve my baking mystery!

[Marty]

For the past year, every cake, cupcake or brownie I bake doesn't rise. They come out flat and even the easy slice off cookies of the roll aren't too wonderful either. This is stuff from the box, Betty Crocker, Pillsbury etc that a child can make. All my other food cooks in the oven just fine, meats, potato etc. Its only cake type things that are giving me fits and this is only happened for the past several months, going on a year. This is a gas stove. I even cleaned the darn thing again during the summer as its not self cleaning.

I'm at my wits end and so is my husband trying to figure out what the problem is. He has even torn down the entire stove and keeps telling me it is not the oven at all. This is what I have checked:

Oven temp with a new thermometer

Cake mix is not expired

Yes I follow directions on the box

I am not in the high elevations enough to have to adjust the recipe but I did try that anyhow

I even bought new cake pans/I normally use a 13 X 9 or two 8" rounds

I experimented the other day using an 8 X 8 square pan and the cake mix in that didn't rise either

Baking on the middle rack

Any suggestions please!

 

[Carolyn R]

My first thought would be temp related, either not hot enough, but you checked that, or not consistantly hot enough. This would have no impact on things that are cooked longer or roasted. The other thing that comes to mind is over mixing ( or getting a new mixer that is more efficient, thus beating for the same amount of time as the old mixer equals over beating). Are the items dryer than usual or still moist? Is it possible the moisture is cooking out too fast ( solution is to up the oil and add an extra egg ), the only other thing I can think of is if a recipe calls for softened butter or margarine, make sure it is soft an not on the verge of melted. FYI for cookies that have some height to them, use half crisco and half butter rather than all butter.

 

[Marty]

I don't use my electric beater because I hate hauling it out. I have been handmixing with a fork. Could that be the problem??? OMG that would be dumb......

 

[chandab]

Are you using home raised eggs rather than store bought? If so, perhaps its the size difference; the home grown eggs have been smaller than the x-tra large eggs I usually buy at the store and use in recipes (at least those I've gotten from my neighbor, now and then, are smaller); so wouldn't add the same amount of moisture to the recipe as the store bought larger eggs.

I mix my cookie and cakes by hand with a serving spoon, and they turn out fine (unless I forget them in the oven and they burn

); so I doubt its because you mix by hand, unless you really mix the life out of it, many say to mix just until all the liquid is mixed in.

I'm not much of a cook or baker, so this is the best I can do.

 

[romewhip]

I would definitely try making a cake using the mixer. Handmixing just doesn't work the same. I also wouldn't mix with a fork, only with a spoon. The fork removes all the air you're trying to incorporate, spoon or mixer adds it.

 

[madmax]

Trying raising your oven temp a little bit. Have you tried adding a wee bit of baking soda as an experiment? Adding a bit of club soda also helps the batter rise. I like hand mixing as well, but you must use a lifting motion instead of just stiring.

Or.... you need a kitchen witch to drive away the gremlins...ha ha. You could make one with a couple of sticks and cloth scraps; do you have any dried corn husks to use.

 

[shorthorsemom]

It shouldnt be the oven temp. Kids easy bake ovens bake using a light bulb. Lower temp just means longer bake times. Since u can substitute applesause or pumpkin for the oil in a recipe it shouldn't be that.

I was going to guess egg size but you said that even the ready made slice cookies in a roll don't work either. What are you using for non stick coating?

How old is your stove? I would get your stove checked for a gas leak. Maybe you have a ghost trying to tell you something. .. Has this oven baked fine in the past? If it has baked fine in the past and this is something new I would have somebody come out and make sure it is safe. Gas stoves can be dangerous when not functioning right. Cakes are sensitive enough to indicate a subtle problem. Get somebody to snoop for gas leaks. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Riverrose28]

Are you opening the door to check on your cakes? If you are try an experiment, and don't open the door at all until the time is up, see if that works.

 

[shorthorsemom]

I googled it and got a million different ideas as to why things baked in a gas oven wouldn't rise.. I did think a couple of tips were good enough to post.

One said to get an oven thermometer and place it on center of middle rack and see what your temp says. if off by more than 25 degrees it could be a problem for cakes.

Another said to put one of those baking stone things like you get from pampered chef on the bottom rack and preheat oven with that inside and bake using just the middle rack and insulated cookie sheets and cake pans, and leave the baking stone in the bottom for some additional radiant heat reflection to even out the oven temp.

Hope this gives ideas. take care.

 

[madmax]

Perhaps I should explain what a kitchen witch is: a homemade doll kept in the kitchen that supposedly wards off evil spirits or gremlins that are messing with your cooking.

JUst a fun thing, but has foundations in folklore. Google it.

Marty, I know you have to be a good cook, it must be your oven, ovens are not consistent world wide. My own oven runs a little hot and I have to adjust. I preheat for baking, but I have noticed that the temperature thingy shows quite a drop when I open the door to put the pan in, so I have been heating the oven a little hotter than suggested and then turning it down afterwards to the suggested setting.

 

[Carolyn R]

I would deffinately start with a an electic mixer, you can whisk the items together but it takes forever to do it well enough. Electric is the way to go for creaming together the wet ingredients, the only thing I can get away with not using a mixer is boxed brownie mix. There is a certain margine of error built in when using box mixes.....ex going over or under a bit with wet ingredients, but as stated, egg size and accurate measurements do add up.

If you get to the heart of the problem, another hint for making box cake mixes taste like homemade...add two extra eggs, sub milk for the water and substitute some softened butter for the oil.

 

[Marty]

I wrecked my post so I'll start again:

Here's where I'm at. Another flat brownie failure last night from Duncan Hines. grrrrrr

The oven is as old as homemade sin.

My eggs are large, not x large and from the store so I'll get x large next time.

I will start using the electric beater

Yes we have calibrated the oven temp and did adjust it already.

No gas leak

I don't have a kitchen witch but I'm ready to board my broomstick over this

It cannot be me every single time wrecking all this food every time I bake. I refuse to cop to that. That's too much wreckage to blame on me as I told Mr. Retirement so I want a new stove. But I'm not getting a new stove. So, the oven is apart once again. He'll find the problem eventually but I'm convinced it's not me anymore..

 

[shorthorsemom]

It could be the stove door gasket if your oven is old.

I make a peach cobbler that is just peaches, sugar and dry cake mix and margarine and no eggs and it puffs up and rises in my oven just fine.

I only ever use large eggs, not extra large, eggs is a specific measurement in a recipe. 1/2 cup is two large eggs. I bake all the time, my dad was a baker most of his life so I am a bake a holic. lol.

For your recipes that call for baking at 350 try 375. Its the oven. has to be. If you were baking from scratch and things were getting weird, I would understand looking at ingredients and technique... but baking boxed mix is hard to mess up.

I substitute all kinds of stuff in boxed mix and still have it rise just fine.. You can take cake mix, add egg whites and some pumpkin and just mix those three ingredients and still make a super nice puffy fluffy cookie thingy to eat.

Non rising would be so frustrating.

Stoves can be bought on Craigs list rather cheap, but new stoves aren't so bad either in price.

Hope you figure it out.

 

[CZP1]

In my experience the problem was the stove. The temperature was off by 25 degrees and when we got a new stove, everything was coming out perfect.

 

[Marty]

Its not the gasket. Stoves are simple to calibrate if the oven temp is off. The oven temp on/ off switch on the outside pops off with a little pull and you unscrew the little screws on the back and set it to match whatever your therm. inside the stove. That's the first thing I did. i got stuck having to clean the floor under the darn thing. eeeks By t he way, don't rely on the temp gages from Walmart. They are junk. I have one from Lowes that is spot on.

 

[chandab]

Ok, it might have been me that mentioned xl eggs, I just looked and mine are just large, which is what I'm sure I usually get. But, the home grown eggs from the neighbor are definitely smaller.

If I remember I'll see if my MIL has any ideas, she used to cook on a gas stove and loved cooking on it. [Main reason for change was that it was making black marks on her walls and ceiling, well that film and she was tired of cleaning it off.]

 

[Marsha Cassada]

Did you try adding a scrunchy to the batter? A few horse hairs?

 

[Marty]

OH Marsha.......you nut

Black marks on the ceiling and walls? I would die die die after all the remodeling we did.

by the way, if i got another one I'd be shopping at Lowe's. I get a slamming big discount there.

 

[shorthorsemom]

Love Lowes. They have a great extended warranty.

PS, I haven't cleaned the inside of my stove in 17 years. LOL, would probably burn the house down if I used the stove cleaning feature. haha

Go bake some cookies or brownies at a neighbor or friends house, that should give you the answer.

If it turns out the same... its you, if it rises just nice, its the stove.

Marsha, thats just darn funny. haha

 

[Jill]

Hoping you can solve the mystery. If you are using mixes and following the directions, I can't imagine why it won't work out.